‘IT’: Stephen King Adaptation Could Open As High As $75 Million

IT is poised to be an absolute monster at the box office, as the newest adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel is set to completely shatter September box office records and recoup its entire $35M production budget in a single weekend.

TheWrap is reporting that current box office tracking for IT places the movie at an opening which, at minimum, will be $60M-$65M according to projections from New Line. That alone would be enough to establish IT as having the biggest opening for a September movie ever, well ahead of Hotel Transylvania 2‘s impressive $48.4M haul – which early box office tracking reports suggested that it could barely pass in a best-case scenario. But based on the word-of-mouth of early screenings and positive reception to the movie from critics, rival studios are projecting that the film’s opening weekend could float all the way up to a $70M-$75M opening haul. Another encouraging sign for the movie is that Fandango is reporting that the movie is outselling other horror movies that were released in similar windows in previous years.

Given that the Summer 2017 season had a few big hits and several movies that either flopped or had disappointing in the United States, Fall 2017 looks as if it’s poised to provide the course-correction that the box office needs. IT being set to be a massive hit is especially interesting considering that the movie has an R-rating (which typically limits turnout), revolves around a cast of kids (which is always a bit of a risk for any movie that isn’t low-budget), and is set for release outside of Summer (which is usually where up to 40% of annual movie tickets are sold).

IT will bring terror to the big screen on September 8, 2017, featuring a cast that includes Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom, Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh, Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier, Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrak, Chosen Jacobs as Mike Hanlon, and Wyatt Oleff as Stanley Uris. A sequel covering the events from the second half of King’s book is planned, although no release date has been set.

10 Stephen King Adaptations Hollywood Needs To Get Right

With The Dark Tower and It, two of King’s most famous and beloved works, reaching the big screen, it feels like the gates are opening on a new age of Stephen King adaptations

Already we’ve seen 1) a new Carrie movie, 2) Under the Dome and 11/22/63 get TV adaptations 3) Netflix’s upcoming Gerald’s Game, 4) a TV series based on the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, 5) Josh Boone looks to make Revival his follow-up to X-Men: The New Mutants, 5) a new version of Hearts in Atlantis is in the works (just called Hearts) and 6) a Cujo remake, with the amazing title of C.U.J.O. Even Cell got made, plus a personal favorite of mine The Mist is back in the form of a new Syfy series airing later this year (based on both the original novella and Frank Darabont’s superb 2007 film).

Our age of cinematic universes feels tailor-made for the world-renowned author. King is known not only for his productivity but for how his stories interlock together in the same universe (multiverse, if you want to get specific). His entire oeuvre is connected by characters, locations, and events, all centered around the literal and figurative Dark Tower, the structure and book series sit at the center of King’s worlds. Of course, no one entity owns the rights to all of King’s works, so we won’t be seeing, say, Pennywise the Dancing Clown say hi to Idris Elba’s gunslinger in a movie anytime soon, but it speaks to King’s continued relevance.

There are, of course, the adaptations that are sacrosanct and need to no update, plus others where we are simply waiting to see if they happen. Speaking of Darabont, he delivered a trilogy of amazing King adaptations in my opinion between The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist. Rob Reiner also mastered the artform, giving us Stand by Me and Misery. There’s already a perfectly-good The Dead Zone movie and TV show. The Tommyknockers and Desperation got the miniseries treatment in 1991 and 2006, respectively. The latter came with a teleplay by King himself, while the former was announced for a new miniseries back in 2013 along with Rosemary’s Baby, the failure of which may have something to do with the radio silence since the announcement. The Shining is actually not one, with King famously disliking the Stanley Kubrick film enough to make a miniseries of his own to “correct” the record (and a Shining prequel is first on our list).

While some works defy or seek re-adaptation, the breadth of the man’s work means there’s plenty of new stuff to mine in the coming years as well. Click Next to learn which to watch out for!